CCS Seminar: Of Corruption and Commissions but no Conclusions Seminar Series: The Dentons Commission

BackgroundSouth Africa has seen a number of Commissions of Inquiry in the post-apartheid era. Dale McKinley has posed the question: ‘Commissions of Inquiry or Omission?’ McKinley’s concern is ‘whether Commissions have achieved anything other than to soak up large amounts of public monies, to control and manipulate public opinion and attention, to avoid political accountability and individual responsibility, to cover-up criminal behaviour, and generally act as vehicles for doing little to nothing?’ This seminar series seeks to highlight the impact of Commissions in a sustained discussion on corruption and democracy in South Africa.

Topic: The Dentons report was formulated in 2015 to probe the electricity crisis in South Africa which had resulted in nation-wide load shedding and a R23 billion bailout from the government. Eskom however only released the report two years later and it was argued that the report had been redacted. In effect the report implicated Eskom’s directors in various corrupt deals citing overpayments, payments without invoices, irregular appointment of suppliers and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act. This seminar considers the Dentons Report in the light of the current discussion around Eskom as a site of state capture and the ongoing Parliamentary Inquiry into affairs at the parastatal.

Speaker Bio: Gerard Boyce is a Senior Lecturer in Development Studies at UKZN. Trained as an economist, he has been keenly following developments in the energy sector. His interest in Eskom specifically stems from his belief that greater efforts need to be made to increase public knowledge and awareness around the issue of nuclear power in order to facilitate a higher degree of public participation in the current nuclear energy provision debate.